It was suggested I make a post here about my successful ARD application as it seems not a lot of people on this forum are familiar with it.
The ARD application is relatively new - it was created in 2022 after the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 was passed. That Act amended the 1981 BNA to add section 4L, which allows for people to apply for discretionary registration in cases where "you would have been, or would have been able to become, a British citizen" but for historical legislative unfairness, act or omission of a public authority, or exceptional circumstances. You can read more about the application and its legal basis here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... accessible. At the bottom of the page are case examples that illustrate potentially-successful and likely-to-be-unsuccessful applications.
As you can see, there are a lot of potential ways someone could be eligible for citizenship under this section. One of these, and there have been some questions here alluding to it, is so-called "double descent" for someone who was born in a foreign country to a parent who was a citizen by descent. There of course is no such thing as double descent, it's just a colloquial term for this situation, but it is historically possible for citizens by descent to have been able (or should have been able if not for historical legislative unfairness) to pass on citizenship to kids born abroad. The reason for this is section 5 of the 1948 BNA, which allowed for a male citizen by descent to register their foreign-born child at a consulate within a year of birth and that child would be a citizen by descent too. This was true from 1949 until 1983 (actually I think 1988 because of a grace period for the 1981 BNA, but I'm fuzzy on the details for that). Female citizens could not pass on citizenship in this way. (For people born in the Commonwealth, so not a foreign country, I think things are different and I don't know much about their options.)
Because the UK has worked to rectify gender discrimination in their citizenship laws, people who were affected by this discrimination can now apply to register as citizens now. This means someone born in a foreign country before 1983 (1988?) to a citizen by descent and who had a grandmother that was born in the UK might be eligible to apply as a citizen now.
There are other situations too - look at the guidance document linked above.
I applied using the ARD application on the basis of having a UK-born grandmother, a parent born in a foreign country, and me being born in a foreign country and I was successful. A weird quirk of the ARD application is that it gives citizenship other than by descent, so even though at birth I would have had citizenship by descent, I am now a citizen other than by descent! The application requires you to write a legal justification of why you should be registered. If you use a lawyer, they will do this for you. If you want to apply without a lawyer (I did), you need to familiarize yourself with the relevant legislation. If you are applying on the basis of a British grandmother, you will need to read 1981 BNA sections 4C and 4L, 1948 BNA section 5, and 1971 Immigrant Act section 2 (as-enacted version). Depending on the dates of your family members' births, etc. you might need to consult pre-1948 legislation too - the UK has a useful guide on the various Acts: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ationality. In my case, I only had to pay the 80 pound ceremony fee and didn't have to pay an application fee. It depends on how you answer question 1.4 on the application.
There is a lot online about ARD/section 4L and there are some law firms that will give you a free assessment and tell you your chances of being successful. And, if you see someone talking about "double descent" and asking if they're eligible, this all is most likely what they are referring to!
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